United States Ninth Circuit
Derek Andrew, Inc. v. Poof Apparel Corp., 07-35048
An award to plaintiff of $15,000 in statutory damages under the Copyright Act, along with nearly $300,000 in attorney's fees, is reversed and remanded where: 1) the first act of infringement in a series of ongoing infringements of the same kind marks the commencement of one continuing infringement under 17 U.S.C. section 412; 2) defendant began its infringing activity before the effective registration date, and it repeated the same act after that date each time it used the same copyrighted material; 3) thus, the award of statutory damages was error; and 4) the district court may have erred as to the attorney's fees award.
Appellate Information
- Argued 05/08/2008
- Decided 06/11/2008
- Published 06/11/2008
Judges
- WRIGHT, District Judge:, Before: SUSAN P. GRABER and JOHNNIE B. RAWLINSON, Circuit Judges, and OTIS D. WRIGHT II, District Judge.
Court
- United States Ninth Circuit
Counsel
- For Appellees:
- Neil A. Smith and Robert J. Stumpf, Jr., Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP, San Francisco, CA, for the defendant-appellant., Lacy H. Koonce III, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, New York, NY, for the plaintiff-appellee.